TNA’s same, repetitive pattern over and over again

I am finally catching up on my TNA viewing and I’m about one month behind into September 2015 of Impact Wrestling. A year ago I wrote an angry rant lamenting about how terribly boring and repetitive TNA’s storylines are. Let me paste that post here again because it sums up how I feel about the Global Force Wrestling invasion:

I am several months behind in watching TNA, and I have just reached the point where AJ Styles left the company and dropped his title to Magnus. I decided to give TNA one last chance, to see AJ’s final match at TNA, and all of the storyline leading up to that moment.

Oh wow, am I massively disappointed. After a small glimmer of hope, after producing hilarious skits in the past few weeks such as the Aces & Eights funeral, we have come full circle into yet another boring, predictable story arc. It has been done before so many times in the past:

1) Immortal, a group led by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, who have power over the company and have the ability to influence matches. The entire locker room (and Sting) has to unite against them to drive them out.

2) Aces & Eights, a masked group of mercenaries who are eventually revealed to be led by Bully Ray, who forced their way into the company to wreak havoc and are constantly interfering in matches. The entire locker room (i.e. Sting and the Main Event Mafia) has to unite against them to end their tyranny once and for all.

3) And now, you have Dixie Carter, the owner of TNA who has turned heel with her persona, and her entire locker room of baddies who are allied with her. She IS the boss of the company, and directly orders wrestlers to interfere in matches in order to further her agenda. The entire locker room of faces (and… Sting again?) has to unite against them to drive them out and end Magnus’s reign as champion, which was won via controversial means.

Here is what is going to happen, I can predict the storyline from miles away: Magnus will continue to be champion for the next several months, holding on to it thanks to interference or amazing luck, just like how Bobby Roode did it during his record 256-day reign. They’ll probably even let him hold the title until Bound For Glory, whereby the X-Division champion at that point will cash in their title to challenge him.

There is a part of me that wants to continue watching TNA just to support the wrestlers. The legitimately gifted stars like Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle; the silly-but-always-entertaining-both-outside-and-inside-the-ring wrestlers like Christopher Daniels (aka CURRY MAN!) and Frankie Kazarian; the female knockouts like Madison Rayne, Gail Kim, and Taryn Terrell who have been putting WWE’s divas to shame for years (although this is slowly being rectified after Wrestlemania 30).

But I’m done, enough is enough. I am sick of watching TNA because they have continued making the same mistakes over and over: what is the point of having a champion like Magnus when he won it via dirty means? What is the point of making him champion if he doesn’t want to defend it (legitimately)? It’s very hard to take a champion like Bully Ray and Magnus seriously when they had to resort to using half of the locker room to do their dirty work for them.

In an ironic way, I’m glad that AJ Styles has finally left TNA for good, and I’m glad Sting is also gone. There’s no point for them to stick around. TNA, a once credible alternative to WWE who prided themselves on the motto, “wrestling matters”, is becoming yet another Russo-tainted WCW.

I guess it’s finally time for me to move on to Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. I won’t miss you at all, TNA. Bye.

To be fair, Ethan Carter III won his title match against Kurt Angle fair and square, and has defended his belt legitimately against Ken Anderson, Matt Hardy, and Justin Gabriel PJ Black so far.

The reason why the WWE vs WCW Invasion storyline worked way back in 2001 was because it had never really been done before: a “cross-promotion” angle where wrestlers from two different established companies were combined and allowed to compete regularly against each other.

You think that after Fortune, Immortal, Aces & Eights, Heel Dixie Carter, and the Beat Down Clan, TNA would have learned their lesson. But no. This is 2015, TNA, please wake up. We fans have gotten very tired of invasions here and invasions that. It’s very dull when things are so damn predictable.

Edward Pang

Likes videogames a lot, and good videogame writers even more. Plays almost everything except for rhythm games. Also enjoys sports, animation, comics, Japanese language studies, and the occasional American TV drama. Contributes to BallBall and No Game No Talk.